routes & content

﻿as explained by tour guide Nathan Hoover:﻿

With every one of my groups, I want to deepen our understanding of-- and our experience of-- something we might see every day, but take for granted. I am fortunate to be one of only two tour guides in the U.S. with a permit that allows me to take groups into either the Burnside Bridge or the Morrison Bridge towers to meet a bridge operator and discover what it takes to open a movable bridge. I remember the first time I climbed down into the piers of the Morrison Bridge and saw the 36-foot-tall gears and 950-ton concrete counterweight. The 'whoa's' I hear from my groups as we go behind the scenes to these (and other) extraordinary spaces remind me how profound and life-enriching a bridge tour can be.

Along the way my groups grow familiar with a basic bridge vocabulary that includes the three basic structural types and three basic movable types, all of which may be found in Portland. We discuss how to go about counting bridges. We seek out the components of a movable bridge including counterweights, cables, and trunnions. We compare and contrast truss patterns. We get right up next to rivets. We name the different types of live load our bridges are expected to withstand. And we consider the specifics that make Portland's bridges unique in the country, or in some cases, one-of-a-kind in the whole world.

It's important to me that my groups have fun as we learn. Time permitting, we visit the Oregon Department of Transportation Region 1 'Willamette River Bridges' exhibit and the Traffic Management and Operations Center. We may also test a bridge for synchronous vertical excitation, cross the longest indoor suspension bridge in the U.S., ride the Portland Aerial Tram in order to see 'from arch bridge to arch bridge', listen to the song of a singing bridge, and/or imagine a Portland before there were any bridges at all. No two walks are the same, and there is more to do to explore bridges than would fit into a single day. Tours can be arranged for any length of time, but I encourage groups to allow as much of the day as possible for the experience.

By the end of the tour, my hope is that everyone in the group has had an adventure that they'll be excited to talk about not just over dinner that night, but for years and years to come.

﻿custom tours﻿

Some groups are looking for a specific focus for their bridge tour: covered bridges, for example, or railway infrastructure. You name the topic, and I will figure out how to make a tour out of it. Send me an email and let me know what you have in mind!